Gallery One: Norther Clay Center: Six McKnight Artists

Six McKnight Artists features the artwork of Northern Clay Center’s 2013 – 2015 McKnight Fellowship recipients, Kelly Connole, Kip O’Krongly, Claudia Alvarez, Sanam Emami, Sarah Heimann, and Jae Won Lee. This Annual exhibition organized by NCC provides the artists who have been generously supported by the McKnight Foundation the opportunity to showcase the successes of their residency or fellowship.

Gallery Two: Barbara Riegel Bend & Peggy Sue Howard

“My intent is to create work that reflects our human ability to connect through whimsy, archetypes, legends, love, nature, and raw expression while utilizing my love for fabric. I construct forms that enhance the voice of the fabrics and use a random assortment of materials that connect and repeat to five my work rhythm and movement.” – Barbara Riegel Bend (Roberts, WI)

“In these new mixed media paintings the refuge on Crex Meadow offers sheltered protection and escape to quiet safety even if inhabited only for a fleeting moment. The meadow speaks to me with a message elusive yet profound, expressed in a code I am compelled to decipher.” – Peggy Sue Howard (Louisville, KY)

Gallery Three: Megan Moore & Jill Van Sickle

“My work is a study of form, color and composition. Painting in oils, acrylics and watercolor, I create illustrative images with a sense of balance and calm… Nature, with its constant presentation of patterns and organic forms, inspires me. My background in illustration manifests itself in many of my works, lending a narrative nature to the compositions.” – Megan Moore (Minneapolis, MN)

“Nature is perfect and beautiful without the help of the artist, so I like to paint using my own eye and imagination as a filter.  take somewhat common subjects from the natural world, such as trees, flowers, and plants, and abstract these subjects using creative lines, colors, textures, and brushstrokes.” – Jill Van Sickle (Minneapolis, MN)

Atrium Gallery: Denise Tennen & Roxanne Richards

“My work is about curve and three-dimensional form. The human body is the fundamental reference for everything I create… My medium, clay, is strongly grounded in utilitarian work. In a twist on the tradition of clay vessels for holding tangible objects, I think of these totally enclosed forms as containers of breath.” – Denise Tennen (St. Louis Park, MN)

“The figures move in and out of the picture plane confirming my uncertainty of what the future holds. The gestural poses of the figures are varied. Sometimes the figures feel strong and ready to embrace new opportunities while other figures retreat to grief and fear. The one thing all the figured possess is the desire to be comfortable again.” – Roxanne Richards (Ham Lake, MN)

Commons Gallery: Jonathan McFadden

“My work explored the deluge of ephemeral text and imagery presented by media and how this cacophony of imagery has altered our understanding of the globalized landscape it presents. Rather than representing this information as ephemeral, my print and installation work uses this information to build a physical history built in the layers of information that makes up my visual esthetic.” – Jonathan McFadden (Lexington, KY)

Overlook Gallery: Mary Johnson

“Merging utilitarian and domestic scrappings, found objects, metal, wood, cardboard and paint, I create layered assemblages and sculptural tableaus, transforming the seemingly mundane into something both powerful and ritualistic. I elevate the status of my subjects as an alchemist attempts to turn lead to gold.” – Mary Johnson (Shoreview, MN)